As a technology consultant at Accenture early in her career, Jennifer Barker learned to assess her corporate clients' wide-ranging needs and concluded that technology can resolve most, if not all, business problems. As the global head of treasury services and depositary receipts at BNY since May 2022, she continues to apply that experience, delving into clients' treasury-related needs and providing them with the latest tech solutions.
The bank's Digital Employee artificial intelligence agent, for example, is one of 10 AI solutions already in production. It autonomously corrects failed payments and performs other business tasks, interacts with internal systems, and communicates with employees through tools including Outlook and TEAMS. BNY estimates that another AI-enabled solution for check-processing has reduced manual efforts by an estimated 75%, while its Wire Investigation agent summarizes complex transactions and case histories to determine the best resolution actions.
Another 11 AI treasury-services solutions are anticipated to be implemented and live before year-end.
BNY Mellon's Client Insights platform was launched under Barker's tutelage a year and a half ago. It provides a curated menu of 15 high-impact problem statements, such as 'repair root causes,' 'counterparty concentration,' and 'payment clearing corridors,' with more on the way. Each application can be clicked to provide recommendations based on a client's own transactional data and market context.
"This way the client isn't blindly relying on data; they are experiencing the analytics behind it," Barker said.
Key to her leadership is Barker's ability to recognize clients' needs, then develop effective products and sell the solutions.
"Jennifer effectively transitions between both roles, understanding the needs of clients and technology capabilities of the bank," said Nancy McDonnell, treasury solution leader at Texas Capital Bank.
Barker's team strengthened Texas Capital's abilities to service clients globally, according to McDonnell, J.P. Morgan's former global head of treasury services to whom Barker reported.
After pioneering instant payments over the Real-Time Payment (RTP) network and the FedNow system, in February BNY sent the first $10 million via RTP, the largest payment yet. BNY's smart router enables clients to use either service, or if neither is available, it converts the payment to same-day ACH.
"We're really leaning into the issue, because clients want everything in real-time, as do their customers," Barker said, adding that BNY connects to a growing number of real-time payment systems around the world.
Barker's approach prevailed over the competition's last year, resulting in treasury services' total revenue increasing by 6% over the prior year, reaching $1.7 billion, versus the industry average of -1%. BNY SWIFT payment volumes grew 11%, vs industry peer average of 7%.
Barker was drawn to BNY's "innovation first" mantra as well as its strategy of allowing bank and corporate clients to white label the bank's treasury services products to service their own customers.
"It's an interesting combination of strategy, consulting, education and technology enablement," she said.
